digest of Celestino Co & Company v. CIR (G.R. No. 8506)

Celestino Co & Company v. CIR G.R. No. L-8506 August 31, 1956 Bengzon, J. Facts:

Celestino Co & Company is a duly registered general co-partnership doing business under the trade name of “Oriental Sash Factory”. From 1946 to 1951 it paid percentage taxes of 7% on the gross receipts of its sash, door and window factory, in accordance with section 186 of the National Revenue Code imposing taxes on sales of manufactured articles. However in 1952 it began to claim liability only to the contractor’s 3% tax (instead of 7%) under section 191 of the same Code. It bolstered its contention by claiming that it does not manufacture ready-made sash, doors and windows for the public and that it makes these articles only upon special order of its customers; hence it is a contractor within the purview of section 191 of the National Internal Revenue Code which enumerates no less 50 occupations subject to taxation. Having failed to convince the Bureau of Internal Revenue, it brought the matter to the Court of Tax Appeals, where it also failed. Issue: whether or not petitioner could be taxed with lesser strain and more accuracy as seller of its manufactured articles under section 186 of the same code, as the respondent Collector of Internal Revenue has in fact been doing since the Oriental Sash Factory was established in 1946 Held: No. The percentage tax imposed in section 191 of the Tax Code is generally a tax on the sales of services, in contradiction with the tax imposed in section 186 of the same Code which is a tax on the original sales of articles by the manufacturer, producer or importer. The fact that the articles sold are manufactured by the seller does not exchange the contract from the purview of section 186 of the National Internal Revenue Code as a sale of articles. Moreover, the fact that windows and doors are made by it only when customers place their orders, does not alter the nature of the establishment, for it is obvious that it only accepted such orders as called for the employment of such materials-molding, frames, panels-as it ordinarily manufactured or was in a position habitually to manufacture. Also, the business enterprise of petitioner does not fall under the enumeration provided in section 191. It would require a stretch of the law and much effort to make the business of manufacturing sash, doors and windows upon special order of customers fall under the category of road, building, navigation, artesian well, water works and other construction work contractors. Construction work contractors are those who alter or repair buildings, structures, streets, highways, sewers, street railways, railroads, logging roads, electric, steam or water plants telegraph and telephone plants and lines, electric lines or power lines, and includes any other work for the construction, altering or repairing for which machinery driven by mechanical power is used.